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“In
the circumstance, Your Majesty, I no longer wish
to wear the garb of the British Knighthood. British
fair play, British justice, and the Englishman's
word of honor which Biafra loved so much and cherished
have become meaningless to Biafrans in general and
to me in particular. Christian Britain has shamelessly
let down Christian Biafra.” -
Dr. Ibiam |
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General
C. Odumegwu Ojukwu may have been the Biafran Head of State and Commander-in-Chief
of the Biafran Armed Forces but it was Dr. Akanu Ibiam who provided
the ultimate moral anchor for the Biafran nation. At Independence
in 1960, Dr. Ibiam was appointed the Governor of former Eastern
Region, the position which he held until the 1966 bloody coup d’etat
that swept the military into power. During the ensuing crisis that
quickly degenerated into the 30-month Civil War, Dr. Ibiam pretty
much stayed out of public view and played an advisory role to the
military administration in Enugu.
Like any other Easterner, Dr. Ibiam was incensed by the horrors
of the pogroms that Ndiigbo were subjected to in Nigeria, especially
the North. When it became clear that General Gowon and the junta
in Lagos were not interested in seeking a peaceful solution to the
crisis that gripped Nigeria at the time, all Eastern political leaders,
including Dr. Ibiam, came out and threw their weight behind the
founding of the Republic of Biafra. Apart from a stellar medical
career since he became a doctor in 1936, Dr. Ibiam was a devout
Christian who held many leadership positions in international church
organizations, even after he became Governor of Eastern Nigeria.
In the colonial era, he received international recognitions, including
British knighthoods and honors like (K.C.M.G., O.B.E. and K.B.E.).
But
Dr. Ibiam’s conscience was not bought. He remained fiercely
devoted to the service of his God and people throughout the dark
days of Biafran struggle. He was particularly irked by the fact
that ex-colonial master, Britain, the founder of the Christian order
which Dr. Ibiam served faithfully as a missionary doctor for more
than 30 years, was the major backer of the Moslem-dominated military
junta in Lagos in its genocidal war to subdue Biafra.
Bewildered by the callousness of the British government’s
calculated abandonment of Christian Biafra in the heat of a survival
struggle to resist a Moslem-inspired invasion for conquest, an enraged
Dr. Ibiam snapped and repudiated Her Majesty’s government
as he returned all his British imperial awards to Queen Elizabeth
II of England with these words: “For these great honors and
special recognitions, I am humbly grateful to Your Majesty and Your
Majesty's Britannic Government. They are a happy reflection of the
importance of Africa and her people before God and man. Howbeit,
I must renounce all of them at this time. I do so to register the
strongest protest at my command against Your Majesty's Government
of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for supplying military
equipment and arms to Nigeria which has waged a senseless and futile
war of aggression against my country, the Republic of Biafra. My
objection and protest are directed solely and entirely to the British
Government because I believe that the staunch British friends of
Africa, particularly the CHURCH, and informed British public opinion
will deplore this unkindly act of the British Government to the
Republic of Biafra. With the highest sense of responsibility, therefore,
and bearing clearly in my own mind the moral issues which are at
stake, and my own stand thereat, I return the Insignia and paraphernalia
of my title to Your Majesty's Britannic Government through the British
Deputy High Commissioner who is resident here in Enugu - the capital
city of the Republic of Biafra.”
The angry and defiant Ibiam concluded his missive to the Queen thus:
“In the circumstance, Your Majesty, I no longer wish to wear
the garb of the British Knighthood. British fair play, British justice,
and the Englishman's word of honor which Biafra loved so much and
cherished have become meaningless to Biafrans in general and to
me in particular. Christian Britain has shamelessly let down Christian
Biafra.”
In these immortal words from one of the great sons of Africa, Dr.
Akanu Ibiam has forever established and entrenched a moral yardstick
which present and future generations of Ndiigbo must inculcate and
utilize to defend our honor and dignity in face of overwhelming
odds. |
